Chapter 3
Chapter 3
The bamboo skewer from the candied hawthorn was still clutched in my hand.
I stood on the bank, watching the two people bobbing in the lake.
Figures shifted and crowded along the covered bridge.
Not a single person reached out to help.
I remembered how cold the water had been then, how heavy my clothes had become.
I had pushed her up onto the shore.
My arms were covered in bloody scratches from her nails.
Then I had turned back to save Murong Ling.
I choked down seven or eight mouthfuls of water.
The soles of my feet were sliced open by broken stones, mangled and bloody.
Only then had I managed to drag him to the bank.
This time, I spotted Bai Zhi in the crowd at once.
Yun’e’s personal maid.
Her face was deathly pale.
The heroic rescue she had imagined never happened.
Yun’e had already passed out from swallowing water.
Murong Ling did not look like he would last much longer either.
I lifted my chin slightly toward my side.
Bai Lan immediately raised her voice and shouted,
“Good heavens, isn’t that the Yun Family’s Second Miss? And the Young Commandery Prince from the Eldest Princess’s Estate!”
“How did the two of them fall in together?”
“Someone help! The Yun Family’s Second Miss and the Young Commandery Prince have fallen into the water!”
The moment her voice fell, the place exploded into chaos.
A few men who were good swimmers exchanged glances.
With a splash, they jumped in and swam toward Yun’e.
The lotus pond looked as if someone had dumped a pot of dumplings into it.
Water sprayed everywhere. Lotus leaves overturned.
Someone grabbed her arm. Someone tugged at her sash.
Someone else simply wrapped both arms around her waist and dragged her to shore.
Yun’e was hauled up in a flurry of hands and feet.
Her clothes were soaked through and plastered to her body, her hair strewn across her face.
The eyes of the onlookers around her shone brighter than the water in the lake.
As for Murong Ling, that side was even livelier.
At some point, a crowd of young ladies had surged onto the covered bridge.
Who knew who was the first to shout, “That’s the Commandery Prince!”
Several of the bolder ones had already jumped into the water.
Four or five people surrounded Murong Ling.
The sweetness of the candied hawthorn still seemed to linger on my tongue.
I curved my lips.
Thanks to them, I had finally learned something.
When it was time to stand by and watch, one must never hesitate.
By the time we returned from Yong’an Temple,
Xiyun Pavilion was in an uproar.
After Yun’e was carried back to the estate, she remained unconscious.
Concubine He knelt at the doorway, her forehead striking the blue bricks with dull thuds.
“Master, I beg you, please call a physician to save Yun’e!”
“She is still so young!”
Father stood beneath the corridor.
His fists clenched, loosened, then clenched again. He looked utterly heartbroken.
But he did not dare move.
Because Grandmother had dragged her sickly body out, leaning on her cane, and blocked the doorway.
Her brows and eyes carried authority, and her expression was as calm as a pool of dead water.
“If Yun’e dies today, the Yun Family’s reputation will remain upright and clean.”
“My son, you must not lose your senses.”
At those words, Concubine He cried until she nearly fainted.
I looked at the mother and son.
Only hatred remained in my heart.
It had been on this very night, too,
that I knelt and accepted judgment.
They believed me, but what use was that?
Grandmother said I was “softhearted and weak, unfit for great things.”
Mother cursed me as “a spineless do-gooder who deserved to be trampled on.”
In my previous life, before I was married off, Grandmother said to me,
“Yun Ai, you can only blame your wretched fate. The Yun Family cannot afford to have another daughter whose purity is in question.”
Only now did I understand the deeper meaning of those words.
I stood behind the moon gate, watching the scene from across half the courtyard.
How beautiful.
Even better than an opera onstage.
After turning past the hanging-flower gate, I found Mother waiting for me beneath the corridor.
Her face wore an expression of deep worry.
Yet her eyes were shining.
Only when she saw me did she return to her usual harsh manner.
“So you still know to come back?”
She looked me up and down.
“Your elder brother will be returning to the capital any day now, yet you still won’t put in any effort. No wonder he only gets along with Yun’e.”
I lowered my eyes and said nothing.
At the mention of Yun’e, the corners of her mouth lifted again, impossible for her to suppress.
“That little slut likely won’t live through the night.”
“That mother and daughter pair are both ill omens. The older one seduced your father, and the younger one keeps clinging to your brother.”
“Mother,” I said, “your daughter is somewhat tired. I will take my leave first.”
She frowned. “I haven’t finished speaking.”
“Then say it tomorrow.”
I turned around. I did not curtsy. I did not ask permission to leave. I simply walked away.
Mother’s furious voice came from behind me.
“What kind of attitude is that? Stop right there!”
I did not look back.
In my previous life, I had listened to others for a lifetime.
In this life, it was time for others to listen to me.
There was one thing Grandmother had said that I very much agreed with.
My fate truly was terrible.
To be born into the Yun Family.
To be saddled with family like this.
But in this life, I would not submit to fate.